Knowledge Base

Display Drivers in Windows 10 are not normally required.

This article provides the information on "Display Drivers in Windows 10".

Display Drivers.

In previous versions of Windows, select Dell displays had a specific driver for the display in addition to the graphics adapter (Video Card) driver.

In most cases, low resolution issues are the result of graphics card driver issues, not display drivers. If Dell does not have a graphics card driver for Windows 10 listed for your system, then the graphics card vendor (NVidia, Intel, AMD etc.) has not provided a driver for Windows 10 or Dell has determined an incompatibility with the system/graphics card elected not to provide Windows 10 support due to this incompatibility.

These drivers enabled expanded capabilities/calibration of the display.

With Windows 7 and Windows 8 when you right click the desktop and select screen resolution, you would see the dialogue box below which highlights the monitor model names. With Windows 10, when you right click the desktop you no longer can access this like you could on Windows 7 and Windows 8. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1 - Display Properties

You have to follow the new steps below to access the Display Properties page.

In Windows 7, 8 and 10 you will only see reference to "Generic PnP Monitor" under monitor tab and under device manager unless you load the display/monitor drivers

Display Driver not required in Windows 10.

Unlike the graphics card driver, which normally requires a specific driver for full functionality, in most cases a dedicated Display Driver is not required.

For Dell plug and play monitors, a dedicated Windows 10 driver for the display connected to the system is not needed. The Windows 10 operating system will automatically read the monitor Extended display identification data (EDID). If your monitor calibration software or other software needs a specific monitor INF file, you may install the monitor Windows 8/8.1 driver into Windows 10.

Does the Windows 10 Device Manager show that the monitor is connected by displaying it as, "Generic PNP Monitor"? (Yes/No)
Do the computer and monitor allow the monitors native/prime resolution? (Yes/No)
If a touch monitor, does touch function? (Yes/No)

If yes to the above, then the computer has correctly read the monitor EDID and a dedicated Windows 10 driver in not required for normal operation.

The following displays do have WHQL certified display drivers for Windows 10 available on the Dell Support Website In the Browse for a product box, click View Products, Select Monitors and Projectors, then Select Monitors, then select your display model. Any drivers for your display will be in the Drivers and downloads section:

U2414H

U2415

U2515H

U2715H

U3415W

UZ2315H

UP2715K

P2314T (Touchscreen)

P2415Q

P2715Q

P2416D

S2240T (Touchscreen)

S2415H

S2715H

NOTE: The S2340T requires the Display Link drivers for it to work. Once the chipset driver has been installed and the system has been rebooted, download and install the DisplayLink driver from here: http://www.displaylink.com/downloads/downloads.php Once installed, reboot the system.